Slight increase in women smokers

The prevalence of smoking among Japan’s adult population fell from 19.9 percent in May 2015 to 19.3 percent in May 2016, according to Japan Tobacco Inc.’s annual survey.

Smoking among men fell from 31.0 percent to 29.7 percent, while smoking among women increased from 9.6 percent to 9.7 percent.

Based on population figures provided by the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan’s smoking population fell from 20.84 million in 2015 to 20.27 million in 2016. The number of male smokers fell from 15.62 million to 14.98 million, while the number of female smokers rose from 5.22 million to 5.28 million. As of April 1, 2016, Japan’s population comprised 50.45 million men and 54.45 million women, while, as of April 1, 2015, it comprised 50.38 million men and 54.37 million women.

The JT study has been carried out annually since 1965.

The May 2016 survey was conducted using a stratified two-stage sampling method. Questionnaires were mailed to about 32,000 adult men and women (20 years or older) nationwide except for the areas affected by the Kumamoto earthquake. JT collected 19,650 (61.2 percent) valid responses from the total population surveyed.